State Fair Community College lets the games begin

14 intramural athletic programs added to college

This year four sports were added to the athletic program at State Fair Community College — men’s and women’s soccer and baseball and softball.

For athletically minded individuals and gamers, the college has more in store, as the college has added 14 intramural programs that will begin today.

“I started to work here at State Fair in May,” Ryan Martin, coordinator of student activities, said Monday afternoon. “SFCC had some intramural sports in the past but one of the things I was asked to focus on when I started was to bring an intramural program back.

“We’re adding 14 events now and we may expand that in the future depending on the response we have with these,” he added.

Martin, who worked with the intramural sports program in his previous position at Butler University in Indiana, said the sports would be open to both men and women and there was not a restriction on the age of the participants.

“There are really only two requirements to participate,” Butler said. “The individual must be enrolled in a class at SFCC or be a member of the faculty or staff at the college.

“Each player on a team or who participates individually must sign up at IMLeagues.com to create their team,” he added. “There is no cost to register or to participate in any of the events.”

Three-on-three basketball begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Fred E. Davis Multipurpose Center, followed by dodgeball in the upcoming weeks.

Outdoor volleyball and flag football will begin in mid-September.

“We’re going to stagger the events throughout the year, typically two or three will take place each month,” Martin said. “Once they go online to register they can see a tentative schedule of the activities for the entire year.

“Registration opens two to three weeks before the event is scheduled,” he added. “The events will take place at SFCC.”

Martin said outdoor volleyball has the most interest to date but that he is hoping more teams register for all the sports once they are aware of the program.

“We haven’t decided all of the games for the video game contest yet,” Martin said.”We’re looking at Madden Football, NBA 2K17, and Call of Duty, but we’re open to what people want.

“The college really wants to do this because we see it as an opportunity for our students to spend time on campus with their friends in a relaxed environment,” he added. “We’ll have brackets and tournaments but we really just want to provide this for our students to have some fun.”

The contests will be supervised by student officials who will be officiating and helping at each event.

“I’m planning a dinner or some kind of recognition ceremony sometime in the spring after all the games have ended,” Martin said. “I’ve got some ideas for awards for things like best team name or most participation.”

For more information about registering or the intramural sports program, individuals may go to the SFCC website and click on the Services for Students/Intramural Sports tab.